ARE YOU CONCERNED THAT JOBS ARE NOT GROWING AS FAST AS THIS ECONOMIC RECOVERY SHOULD BE GENERATING?

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YES Nearly six years were required to regain the same number of jobs available before the Great Recession. That’s too slow. Historically, previous peaks have been reached in two years or less. Worse yet, about half the decline in the unemployment rate this time is due to people leaving the labor force, not jobs being created. In addition, there is concern over the quality of the jobs that have been created — too many part-time and low-paying. Time to retire the demand-side policies — quantitative easing and fiscal stimulus — and try the production side of the economy.

NO Not at this point, since the numbers are now, well, where we would have wanted them to be a couple of years ago. The economic crisis which preceded the current recovery wiped out many jobs in one moment of carnage. But many of these jobs were destined to the obsolescence compost heap anyway. It just played out quicker than it probably would have had the Great Recession not happened. The nation’s economic challenge of late has been to discover new employment sectors and job categories. But I have no problems with the current pace of recovery. I do believe that more public money should be directed to new infrastructure. That would reap tremendous short- and long-term economic rewards.

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NO Our rate of U.S. job growth has been solid and running faster than the increase in the working age population. We never regain jobs as fast as we lose them. Our reliance on technology to replace labor will only continue to accelerate in the future. For example, where once we had labor-intensive roof inspectors, we now use faster and cheaper drones and require a new set of skills for the inspectors. Constantly learning new skills is a given today. Otherwise you find yourself underemployed or worse. Local governments can do little to stimulate jobs, aside from better education from the primary level up and reducing business regulation. States can lower taxes and the U.S. can lower corporate tax rates.

YES Job growth is sizable both nationally and locally. However, across the country, nearly 10 million people are still out of work, with one-third of them without a job for six months or longer. About 7.5 million Americans have been forced to accept part-time work and wages are just barely keeping up with inflation. Policymakers desperately need to reform the corporate tax code. They also need to listen to businesses and eliminate the redundancies or conflicts in various regulations while finding better ways to achieve the desired goals of public policy but at a much lower cost in terms of lost jobs.

YES It should always be a concern when the economy is turning around and growing, and the resulting job growth is lukewarm at best. It is frightening for the millions of Americans, and worldwide too, when they don’t see opportunities for their current skill sets in the recovering job markets.... There are several million unfilled jobs in America right now, but they demand a high level of education and/or skill. Both of which not all job seekers can be trained to do. Or the jobs demand such a low level of skills and training that few Americans want to do the work. What societal changes do we need to make so that America has a thriving economy yet millions fewer workers?

YES I am concerned that we are not growing jobs as fast as we need to in order to spur economic recovery and compete on a global stage. Over the long term, improving access to higher education for more people will help grow our economic and job base. Economists at Standard & Poor’s have estimated that if the average American worker had completed one extra year of school, the U.S. economy would grow annually by an additional half-percentage point — or $105 billion — over the next five years.

NO But I’m extremely concerned that while we bemoan slow job growth, we ignore the astounding number of jobs that go unfilled due to a staggering lack of qualified candidates. Local and global markets are ever more competitive and constantly evolving. A large portion of the unemployed are qualified solely for jobs of past economies. While more robust growth will reopen some of those positions, most are gone forever. Those with limited education and skill sets that don’t match demand will fill a pool of decreasing opportunity. This brutal pragmatic reality must be recognized publicly and used to force educational policy reform.

YES It is absolutely a concern that jobs are not growing as fast as the economic recovery is growing. Part of the reason is due to businesses being affected by increased costs to operate and continued uncertainty with our political and international environments. With increased costs and uncertainty, businesses are hesitant to staff up. Instead, more is being asked from the existing employee base. To produce more jobs there has to be some certainty, politically and internationally, and it would be nice if something could be done to reduce, or slow the increase in operating costs, i.e. employment and health care. Vote carefully.